


What the water gave me

by Ischa



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Boys Kissing, Dreams, Fairy Tale Elements, M/M, Magic, Sea Monsters, kraken - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-14
Updated: 2016-11-14
Packaged: 2018-08-31 00:05:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,342
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8554957
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ischa/pseuds/Ischa
Summary: This a Kraken-Bucky story. I have no excuse. It’s also kind of a fairytale. 

   He ended his run by the lake and the Kraken came out to greet him. At least Steve hoped it was meant as a greeting. One purple tentacle came out of the water and nudged Steve’s ankle gently.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Title: Florence & the Machine.

~One~  
“Anyone else noticed that this thing likes Cap? I mean…what is it with you?” Tony asked, taking his helmet off. 

Steve shrugged. “I’m likeable.” 

“Yeah…sure,” Tony said. 

“The question is, what are we going to do with it now?” Clint asked. There was that glint in his eyes that Steve learned to recognize as trouble. 

“The government-“ Tony began, but was cut off at once. 

“We don’t trust them,” Wanda and Clint said. She was looking at Steve strangely too. “And it is not a normal Kraken.”

“When is ever anything normal around here anymore? I miss the times my enemies were people who wanted to take over my company,” Tony sighed. 

“What do you mean, it’s not a normal Kraken?” Steve asked, looking at the Kraken in question. It was bound and looking at Steve. Steve was very aware of its gaze on him. 

“I mean,” she said. “Tony is right. It likes you.” 

“There,” Clint said. “That settles it. I am glad I made you not hurt it too much. You are going to look after it.” 

“It’s a Kraken, Clint. We don’t have the space-“

“I have a cabin,” Tony cut in. 

Steve looked at him, unbelieving. “You have a cabin?”

“It’s a very nice cabin and it has a lake. Right there, in front of the house.” 

“Perfect,” Wanda and Clint said. 

“I can’t just-“

“What else are we going to do with it? Give a giant, intelligent Kraken to the government or some private institution?” Clint asked. 

The Kraken trashed at that.   
Steve knew he wasn’t going to hand the Kraken over and so did Clint and Wanda and apparently Tony, because Tony was already on the phone organizing a transport. Right now Wanda was keeping the Kraken still and wet, but Steve could see that it was taking a toll on her.   
Steve rubbed the bridge of his nose. His day had started out so good and then they got the news about the Kraken. The giant, purple Kraken, attacking the bay. And here Steve was with a new pet. 

“What am I even going to do with it?” Steve asked helplessly as he watched Tony’s men and women fuss around the Kraken.

“Talk to it,” Tony said. “You can be the Kraken-whisperer.”

“You should give it a name too,” Clint said. “Before you do, ask one of the docs if it’s a boy or a girl Kraken.” 

Steve just looked at him. Blinked. “I don’t think the other Kraken will laugh at him when I get the name wrong.” 

“You never know,” Clint answered. “Besides, Wanda said it’s not a normal Kraken. It’s magical.” He looked at her and she nodded. 

“There is magic, yes.” 

“When was your last vacation?” Tony asked. 

“When was yours?” Steve shot back. 

“This is not about me. The Kraken doesn’t like me, it’s in love with your baby-blues,” Tony replied. “And we don’t want another disaster like this. I mean, it took out five warehouses before we got to it.”

“Mister Stark,” one of the doctors said. “We are ready to take it to the cabin.”

“Well, then, by all means, do. Steve, you are riding with them. We won’t risk anything. This is a giant, purple magical Kraken after all. We will send you clothes and a toothbrush.”

“And food,” Clint said. 

Wanda nodded, stepped up to him and kissed his cheek. “Have fun.” 

Steve was beyond bewildered. He was the leader and they just – they were shipping him off. And he was letting them. What the hell? “You call me in a crisis.” 

“I handled shit before we teamed up,” Tony said. “Clint too. He’s a badass former SHIELD agent.”

“Thank you Tony,” Clint said. “Also there is Wilson and Nat.” 

“We can handle things here, while you take care of the Kraken,” Wanda said. 

“We need to go now, Sir,” a young man said to Steve. 

Steve nodded. “Okay.” 

And then he was in the helicopter and following the Kraken to Tony Stark’s cabin. 

~Two~  
The Cabin wasn’t actually a cabin, because this was Stark’s house. It was however very remote and – nice. Steve would settle on nice. He had lived all his live in cities, big ones, and there had been always noise. So much noise.   
When Steve woke up the next morning after settling in, it was to the gentle hum of the fridge, the birds outside and the sound of the lake water hitting the deck. He had to strain his hearing to make that one out, but by now it was habit.   
He got up, made coffee and went for a run. He breathed in the forest scented air and felt himself getting lighter for reasons he didn’t want to think about too deeply.   
There was no battle here, except the one he fought against himself. Maybe Wanda had been right, maybe he needed this.   
He ended his run by the lake and the Kraken came out to greet him. At least Steve hoped it was meant as a greeting. One purple tentacle came out of the water and nudged Steve’s ankle gently.   
Steve looked at the water and then thought, what the hell, and sat down on the deck. He took off his shoes and let his toes slip under the surface. Wanda had said the Kraken didn’t mean him any harm. He trusted her.   
The tentacle curled gently around his left ankle and stayed there as long as Steve was sitting on the deck. Just staring at the lake. There was no sign of the Kraken. The lake was huge and Steve hoped that the Kraken was feeling okay there. 

~+~  
The second day was pretty much like the one before. Steve got up, ran, made breakfast, sat down with the laptop Tony provided and watched the lake for any sign of the Kraken. 

“Did you kiss him already? Maybe it’s like with the Frog and the Princess, you would be the princess in this scenario,” Tony asked, that afternoon when Steve was on his way to the lake again. Even out here the phone connection was a dream, Steve thought. Tony of course was anything but a dream. 

“I can’t actually see its mouth,” Steve said. 

“It is a he. You need to give him a name, Pinky?” Tony asked. 

“I’m not naming the giant Kraken Pinky, Tony,” Steve said. One tentacle came out of the water to wave at Steve. Steve smiled. 

“Fine, you come up with a good name then,” Tony replied. There was a crash in the background and Tony swore colorfully. “Have to go, one of my robots caused a fire.”   
Steve wished this wasn’t something that happened to Tony roughly once a week. He put the cell on the deck and sat down. 

The Kraken came closer. Steve could see its massive form shift under the surface. And then a tentacle come out of the water, curled around Steve’s ankle again. It was surprisingly nice. 

“What’s with you, hmm?” Steve asked. The Kraken didn’t answer, of course. The tentacle however tightened a little bit. Not painfully, just like a squeeze of fingers or something.   
“Would it help, I wonder if I did kiss you?” Steve asked and then felt foolish for it. This was insane. He wasn’t living a fairytale. Far from it, or maybe he was living a modern version of a Grimm tale.   
Steve sighed and leaned back against the deck, stared at the patches of sky visible through the trees. It was peaceful here, enchanted even. He closed his eyes. 

~+~  
Steve was dreaming and he knew he was dreaming.   
He was standing on sand and when he looked up he could see the blue sky and patches of darker shapes. Everything was warm and a bit out of focus. When he lifted his arm it felt heavy like he was walking through something and then it came to him, he was standing at the bottom of a lake. He blinked, looked around, yes, he was standing at the bottom of a lake. Tony’s lake. There was wet sand and stones and all kinds of water plants and fish and somewhere here was also the Kraken.   
He wasn’t afraid, he knew he was dreaming and he also knew that the Kraken wouldn’t harm him.   
Okay, he thought, okay and then he just walked until he found the Kraken, which was smaller than in the real world. The size of a human. It was still, however a purple Kraken.   
It was sitting, or lounging or something on a big flat rock. And watching Steve as Steve approached it. Him. Tony said it was a male. 

“I’m Steve,” Steve said, and wanted to put his hands in the pockets of his pants, but realized just then that he was naked.

“I know,” the Kraken said. He voice was like water, flowing and cascading and so very inhuman. 

“I’m dreaming,” Steve stated. 

“You are, because this is the only way we can talk.”

“I think my ma read me a story once that started out like this,” Steve said, smiling. 

The Kraken’s eyes crinkled slightly like he was amused. “Your ma read you stories about Kraken?”

“No, not Kraken but enchanted or cursed human beings. You are, aren’t you?” 

The Kraken shrugged. “I’m not sure.”

“You don’t know?” 

“I can’t remember being anything else, ever,” the Kraken replied. 

“So…you don’t want me to go on a quest and find a magical object that could free you?” Steve asked. 

The Kraken looked up. “You’re waking up.” 

“I’m –“

~+~  
“-not,” Steve said, waking up. The sun was low and his phone was buzzing, probably what woke him. The tentacle around his ankle was gone. He was alone on the deck again. “Yes?” he asked, picking up the phone. 

“Hello, Steve,” Wanda said. 

“Wanda,” Steve replied, sitting up and rubbing a hand over his face. The lake was still and calm. A perfect mirror image of the sky above. 

“Did you –“ she began and then stopped, changed tracks. “How are you?” 

“Fine,” Steve said. He was. Kinda. He was also feeling useless. 

“Clint says that’s bullshit,” Wanda replied. 

“I have no idea what I’m even doing here,” Steve said, staring at the lake, wiling the Kraken to come out of it. It wasn’t happening. The water stayed smooth and undisturbed. 

“These things need time, Steve. He will tell you what to do,” Wanda replied. 

“What am I going to do until then?” 

“Read? Cook? Relax?” Wanda answered. “Chop wood?” 

Steve laughed. “Yeah,..”

“You are there for a reason, Steve, no matter that right now it looks like it’s all a big coincidence.”

“How are you guys doing?” Steve asked. 

“Same old, same old,” Wanda replied. “But no major crisis has arisen so I am going to spend the weekend with Clint and his family.” 

“Have fun,” Steve said. 

“You too,” Wanda replied and hung up.   
Steve got up and went back to the Cabin to make dinner. 

~Three~  
Steve was at the bottom of the lake again. He could feel the sand under his feet this time. He was naked, but could do nothing about it. He had tried for the first few minutes to make clothes, but it seemed it wasn’t his dream and he couldn’t do much about anything here. The only thing not under the Kraken’s power was Steve.   
He made his way to the big flat rock. The Kraken was there, waiting for him. He looked different this time. Maybe it was the eyes, they looked human and they were blue. 

“We meet again,” Steve said. 

“Did you read up on fairy tales in the meantime?” the Kraken asked. 

The stupid thing was, Steve had. But he still didn’t know what he had to do, or if he had to do anything at all. This wasn’t a fairy tale.   
He shrugged. “It’s light reading.” 

“Is it? You should read to me then. Up there,” the Kraken said, pointing to the surface with one of his tentacles. 

“You hardly ever visit anymore,” Steve said, frowning. 

The Kraken stretched, luxuriously, one of his soft tentacles brushed Steve’s leg. It made him shiver for no real reason.   
“I’m there all the time, Steve.” 

“What’s your name anyway?” Steve asked. 

“I don’t remember.” 

“What do you remember?” 

“Something purple and then pain, water after, rage and then you. The harbor. You at the harbor.”

“Why didn’t you attack me?” 

“I don’t know,” The Kraken said. “I couldn’t.” 

Steve blinked. It was strange, because they were still under water, and everything felt alien and heavy and warm for some reason.   
“Is this helping?” Steve asked. 

“Helping what?”

“Helping you remember?”

The Kraken frowned. “Maybe? I don’t know.”

Steve cocked his head. “It’s doing something. You’re different every time I see you.”

The Kraken looked at its tentacles, let them slide back and forth. “I don’t know. Really?”

“Yes,” Steve said. “Your eyes are blue here. Up there,” he pointed at the surface of the lake, “They’re just black.” 

“Maybe it is helping then,” the Kraken replied. “Maybe I should keep you here.”

Steve hadn’t thought about it that way. Could the Kraken keep him here, at the bottom of the lake?   
“I’m sleeping, dreaming.” 

“Yes, but what if you sleep forever?” The Kraken asked. 

“Forever…” Steve repeated. He slept already 70 years once and he wasn’t keen on a repeat performance. “I think I would die in the real world.” 

The Kraken seemed to consider that, one of his tentacles was curling around Steve’s ankle again. It felt warm and solid. Steve was surprised that he didn’t recoil; he honestly didn’t know what it meant.   
“I don’t want that,” the Kraken said.

Steve smiled. “Good to know.”

“You should wake up now, Steve,” the Kraken replied gently. 

And Steve did. 

~+~  
Steve really had no clue what he was doing and how long he was going to keep doing it. Tony and Wanda, even Sam, always told him he could stay longer still when he called. They had everything under control. Steve hadn’t heard about any major crises on the news either, so he was inclined to believe them.   
The Kraken was constantly changing. Even the color of its skin. The purple was fading to pink and then to a more human skin color. It was as if there was a person hidden inside the Kraken’s monstrous form.  
But hadn’t Steve known that deep down from the very beginning? 

~+~  
It was getting colder, so Steve grabbed a thick cardigan and went out to the lake with a hot mug of coffee. A mist was hanging over the lake, slowly creping closer to the deck.   
Steve crouched down on the edge of the deck, put his mug aside and let his hand slide into the water. It was cold too. After seventy years trapped in ice Steve thought he wouldn’t be feeling the cold so acutely. But here he was shivering and waiting.   
After a few minutes a pale pink tentacle reached up and wound around first Steve’s fingers and then his wrist.   
Steve realized in that moment that he had no idea what he was doing and no idea why he was doing it which was far more alarming.   
The tentacle yanked hard and Steve fell into the icy cold water. The cold stole his breath and he struggled, but it was no use because other tentacles were winding around him. Keeping him still, dragging him down. He was going to drown. 

Steve woke up with a silent scream and bathed in sweat. He could still feel the silky but unforgiving embrace of the Kraken, pulling him down, down, down.  
He took a deep breath and released it slowly and then Steve just kept breathing. Relishing in the ability to do it until his fingers weren’t tearing at the sheets anymore. 

~+~  
Steve was packing the last of his things when there was a soft knock on the door. It startled him because he hadn’t heard any footsteps.   
He zipped up his bag and turned around. The knock came again. He bit his lip and then squared his shoulders, this was ridiculous. He was a grown man. He was an avenger. Hell he was Captain America. He could open a door.   
The knock came again. Soft as before. Whoever was on the other side wasn’t in any hurry.   
Steve opened the door and a soft, damp tentacle wound around his wrist. Panic threated to rise, but he fought it back. The Kraken had never harmed him, except in his last dream. The Kraken pulled and Steve only resisted for a heartbeat. He let the tentacle lead him to the deck. He was only a few feet away from the water. It wasn’t still anymore. It was moving, restlessly. Steve tried to pry the tentacle from his wrist then, but the gentle grip got tighter and then another tentacle was winding around one of his ankles and another was sliding up to his waist. 

“Okay,” Steve said. “Okay, I get it.” 

The tentacles went still, loosened a bit, but didn’t let go of Steve. It wasn’t painful, but he knew he was at the Kraken’s mercy.   
Steve took a deep breath and a step forward to the edge of the deck. Then another and another until the next would mean he would fall into the cold water. 

“Okay,” he said again and stepped of the ledge. 

The water was welcoming him, the tentacles were holding him gently and he was drowning. One little bit at a time.   
Steve didn’t want to die, but this wasn’t so bad.   
He recognized the rock the Kraken had been lying on in Steve’s dreams. The Kraken seemed smaller to Steve now. He was pulled into the Kraken’s embrace. Was cradled like a lover and it made his heart beat faster which was no good, no good at all.   
Steve tried to calm down but didn’t manage.   
The Kraken stroked his cheek softly, let his tentacle slide over the curve to his mouth and then over Steve’s lips where it teased until Steve’s lips parted. The water was cold in his mouth and tasted of clean dirt and something green.   
Everything was silence and peace and darkness creeping in at the edges. Steve let go. 

~+~  
When Steve woke up again, he was lying shivering on the deck. It was night and he was naked, he realized.   
He blinked and the stars came into focus.   
“You’re awake,” someone said and Steve’s heart clenched in his chest because he would recognize the voice anywhere. 

“You’re not dead,” Steve said. 

Bucky laughed, it sounded unused and hoarse. “I’m also not a kraken anymore.” His fingers ran gently over Steve’s arm and made Steve shiver even more. “Thanks to you.” 

“I didn’t know it was you,” Steve said. 

“Steve,” Bucky replied (and no one could say Steve’s name like Bucky did), “I didn’t know it was me.” He lay down next to Steve and now Steve realized that Bucky was naked too. He could feel Bucky’s body heat and wanted nothing more than to curl into it and fall asleep like that and never wake up again. 

“What happened?” Steve asked in a whisper. 

“You died,” Bucky said. 

“But I’m not dead,” Steve replied. 

“It never sticks with you, does it?” There was humor in Bucky’s voice and it made Steve smile. 

“With you neither,” Steve said and gave in to the urge to curl up next to Bucky, to scoot closer and put his arm around Bucky’s waist. Finger’s grazing Bucky’s hip. 

“Seems like it,” Bucky replied. 

“So, I died,” Steve prompted. 

“Yes, you did you stupid fucker, I would be mad at you, but by being heroic you broke the curse.” 

“Tony will laugh so hard,” Steve whispered, pulling Bucky closer. 

“Yeah, why’s that?” Bucky’s lips looked soft and inviting and Steve wanted nothing more than to kiss them, so he did. 

“Because I got a fairy tale ending after all,” Steve answered and kissed Bucky again.


End file.
